Chinese New Year: how to make Grandma’s sugar rings, the addictive festive treat
- As a child, Ringo Chan used to watch his grandmother make sugar rings, and after a few years, she taught him how to make them
- Now executive pastry chef at the Four Seasons Hong Kong hotel, Chan shows us how to make the festive delicacy
When it comes to Chinese New Year, Ringo Chan Wing-hung, 48, has fond memories of making tang huan, or sugar rings. They are thin, delicate round pieces of deep-fried batter that are reminiscent of gold coins. They are very airy, crispy, delicious and addictive – you can’t just eat one.
Chan, executive pastry chef at the Four Seasons Hong Kong hotel in the city’s Central business district, remembers as a child watching his grandmother making them. “She wouldn’t let me make them because she said it’s very dangerous because of the hot oil, but mainly because she worried us kids would say something bad, because if you say something bad in the kitchen, it will go into the sugar ring so the next whole year won’t be good,” he recalls.
After a few years, though, she let him help her, and eventually she passed on the recipe to him.
His grandmother was particularly busy on Chinese New Year’s eve, making turnip cake and sugar rings. “We would be up all night making the sugar rings, not only to eat with guests who visit our home, but also to give to them as gifts.”
These sugar rings are popular in southern China, but also in some southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Some people remember when they ate it as a child they tried to pick out the middle part of the ring to eat first without breaking the ring.
